Agriculture committee  I would like that, and the beekeepers would like that as well.

Agriculture committee  Could self-sufficiency be achieved? It would be very difficult, as a result of winter.

Agriculture committee  Beekeepers need bees in the spring. We're not ready to produce at that time. Some Canadian industries are currently establishing themselves in California to produce queens with Canadian genetics in warmer countries. This strategy could be adopted. However, the self-sufficiency

Agriculture committee  I didn't have the chance to participate. I'm not a toxicologist. I'm an apiculture researcher. However, I follow what's going on at the PMRA extremely closely. I think the PMRA is a government entity that works very well. It's made up of scientists who conduct analyses, but thing

Agriculture committee  I can't answer this question. It's too difficult for me and it's not my field. As I told you, I'm not a toxicologist. Toxicologist are specialists who know how to handle these types of questions, and I trust them. They produce results using the tools in their possession.

Agriculture committee  I didn't invent the term. It was created at Apimondia 2009, in Montpellier. The Apimondia's theme was “The Bee, Sentinel of the Environment”. A single colony of bees can have about ten foragers. In other words, as soon as the weather becomes warm, 10,000 bees leave and touch ever

Agriculture committee  Good question. One of the goals of the Canadian beekeeping industry and the Canadian Honey Council, in Quebec and all provinces, is to move toward self-sufficiency, which is currently inconceivable. For example, if 20% of the bees have died by May, to compensate for the losses,

Agriculture committee  There's a major difference. Some groups, such as CRSAD, genetically select honey bees. In these centres, bee colonies are chosen for their hardiness, meaning their overwintering survival. The colonies are selected for the spring build-up, so they can be strong for the blueberry a

Agriculture committee  It's one of the selection principles. We first select the bees that survive the winter, obviously.

Agriculture committee  Good question. There's no work on phenotypic selection, or the selection of a characteristic in order to produce bees that tolerate pesticides. I've never seen this. However, we've observed that it's very difficult to keep bees in a strongly agricultural region, such as Montérég

Agriculture committee  The bee nutrition issue is significant.

Agriculture committee  That's currently a very active research field, not only in Canada, but also in the United States, where a great deal of work is being done on agricultural land development.

Agriculture committee  Yes, in fallows. It's developing slowly. The right plants must also be selected. They need to bloom at all times. Bees are constantly feeding themselves. It's not as simple as it seems. We're not just talking about planting flowers in flower beds. There must be a variety of flowe

Agriculture committee  The losses vary, so to speak. In recent years, things have been going much better in Canada, where losses are under 20%. However, losses in certain provinces, such as Manitoba and Ontario, have exceeded 30% in the past five years. The losses aren't equal across the country or fr

Agriculture committee  Thank you for inviting me. This gives me an opportunity to share not just my personal view, but also the view of the beekeeping stakeholders I represent in Quebec and Canada. I'll begin by telling you about the Centre de recherche en sciences animales de Deschambault, or CRSAD,